Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Arayara International Institute filed an independent action for early production of evidence against the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) and the Federal Union. The central objective revolved around obtaining official information to clarify the climate impact associated with the ANP's ongoing offering of blocks for oil and gas exploration.

The Attorney General of the State of Rio Grande do Sul promoted a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) against Municipal Law No. 4,968/2019 of Eldorado do Sul, which revised the Master Plan for Urban and Environmental Development of the Municipality.

The plaintiff argued that the law was passed without mandatory public participation during the legislative process and without prior environmental studies, which violates the State Constitution and the Federal Constitution.

In 2019, a private lawyer named Yefferson Mauricio Dueñas Gómez initiated a nullity action against Presidential Decree 1500 of August 6, 2018, which redefined the ancestral territory of the Arhuaco, Kogui, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM).

Various ethnic communities filed a protective action against government authorities to stop the intensive and large-scale use of various illegal mining and logging methods in the Atrato River basin (Chocó).

In December 2022, twelve Pastos people from the Cumbal, Mayasquer, Panam and Chiles reserves in Nariño, Colombia, learned of the existence of a contract between the authority of the indigenous community of Gran Cumbal and SVP Business SAS for the purchase of carbon bonds related to the REDD+ project “Pachamama Cumbal”.

In January 2022, the political party Rede Sustentabilidade (Rede) filed an Action for Non-Compliance with Fundamental Precept (ADPF) with a request for precautionary measures against the Government of Brazil, due to the omission of allocating resources to the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), as well as for lack of monitoring of deforestation in the "Cerrado" ecoregion in Brazil.

On November 11, 2020, an Action for Non-Compliance with Fundamental Precept (ADPF 760) was filed by the political parties (PSB, Rede, PDT, Green Party, PT, PSOL and PCdoB) together with civil society organizations (APIB, Greenpeace, Conectas, Alana, Terrazul, Observatorio do CLIma, etc.), against the Federal Union and organs of the Federal Public Administration – IBAMA, ICMBio and FUNAI – for non-compliance with the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm).

This Action for Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF), brought by the Workers' Party (PT), denounces the Brazilian Federal Executive Branch's failure to fulfill its constitutional duties to protect, prevent, monitor, and conserve the environment, particularly in the face of the advancing fires in the Pantanal and the Amazon.

The Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) was filed by the PSB, PSOL, Rede, PT, PDT, and PCdoB parties against Federal Law 14.182/2021, which authorizes the privatization of Eletrobras and modifies key elements of the legal framework governing the Brazilian electricity sector. The law resulted from the conversion of Provisional Measure (MP) 1.031/2021, issued by the Presidency of the Republic to facilitate the privatization of the company.

The Sustainability Network, the PSOL, and the PSB filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI), with a request for precautionary measures, against Articles 1 through 7 of Federal Law 14.299/2022. They also requested the admission of the Arayara International Institute as amicus curiae .